By: Vanessa Smith
Buffalo State College kicks
off the centennial celebration of the Niagara Movement with
a film documenting Buffalo’s part in the Underground
Railroad.
The Niagara Movement was
one of the first civil rights organizations in the United
States and a forerunner to what is now the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The
NAACP adopted the Movement’s Declaration
of Principles into its creed, which is still
used today.
Civil rights activist W.E.B.
DuBois organized the first meeting of the Niagara
Movement in July 1905. Now, the lecture series, called “What
Price Freedom? The Centennial Celebration of the
Niagara Movement” is being held at the
birthplace of the Movement.
Through a generous grant from the New
York Council of Humanities, project director Wanda
Davis and project assistants Felix Armfield and Sheila
Martin bring a piece of Buffalo history to life.
“This was the birthplace of the
civil rights struggle,” says Davis, adding that “we
want to engage the community in discussion about the racial
equality built out of this.”
The first lecture begins at 6
p.m. Sept. 15. The Warren Enters Theatre at
BSC plays host to a screening of Tales of the Underground
Railroad: On the Erie Canal, a film produced by
BSC alumnae James P. Gribbins and Bernadette
Medige.
Kevin Cottrell,
a local Underground Railroad authority, presents and
will also discuss the film and answer questions. This
lecture, first in a series of 12, focuses on the struggle
to escape from slavery and how the Erie Canal played
an important part in it.
The series, which continues
through April 2006, has events both on and off
campus, including:
·ECC
City Campus
·Buffalo
and Erie County Public Library
·El
Bethel Light of the World Missions.
All events are free and
open to the public. Davis and Martin also hope a
young audience attends these events. “We encourage
youths to go. Buffalo is fertile ground for this
topic and young people should get involved,” said
Davis and Martin.
Directions, maps, parking and
other information can be found on the Niagara Movement
website www.buffalostate.edu/niagaramovement.
podcast of press conference
pic- Niagara Movement
inside view of Warren Enters
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